Facebook Fan Page Best Practices
June 20, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
I have been managing a couple of brand’s fan pages directly for some time – Savvy Cellar Wines (which I’m a Co-Owner of) for over two years and Organic Wine Review (which was video blog launched last year). My consulting practice SmokeJumper Strategy is increasing being called upon to assist software and Internet companies with their social media and marketing strategy, which inevitably includes Facebook. I was also recently asked by Facebook to become an Advisor to their Local product and marketing efforts.
During this time, I’ve experimented with many aspects of managing a fan page for a small & local businesses: from times to post, different media types and observing and measuring what types of posts seem to drive social interaction. Along the way, we’ve managed to grow our fan base (now at 2,100), hopefully engage them in a positive way and taken advantage of the advances Facebook has engineered into their tools and apps for fan pages, their advertising platform and their analytics to measure audiences and responses to actions.
I’m Tired of One Night Stands
February 21, 2011 by admin · 6 Comments
At the risk of mixing metaphors, Luke Hohmann recently described Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as enticing businesses into one night stands. At first I laughed but as I thought about my direct experiences with a plethora of group buying sites, I think he may be right. There is no doubt that these daily deal sites can deliver a deluge of coupon-grubbing customers to a small, local business’s door step. But at what cost? Negative margin, stretching service delivery to breaking point, alienation of regular loyal customers, attracting customers who don’t spend more than the deal amount and won’t ever come back are some of the well documented potential pitfalls. (And hopefully not STD’s!)
I often describe Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as providing small businesses a large, fishing drift net to cast broadly into the ocean; the result is you will no doubt collect a lot of sea life, but only some of which will be the targeted species you are actually fishing for. Luke’s metaphor is certainly more colorful and may, in fact, be truer than mine.
Yelp’s Douchebaggery Issue
January 3, 2011 by admin · 5 Comments
Yelp has a douche bag issue. This is not new. But a recent experience made me think about it in a new light.
Savvy Cellar Wines, a local wine bar located in Silicon Valley that my wife runs, has been relatively active with social media: facebook, twitter, location-based services, review sites, etc. In theory, I believe that social media and the act of putting publishing tools into the hands of the masses is a good thing. However there are aberrations and, in practice, the theoretical ideal is sometimes not achieved – businesses can being unjustifiably vilified by anonymous (or semi-anonymous people), left with little recourse. Let’s walk through a humorous example. (Warning: some of the language is colorful and not for the proper or feint of heart.)
Have Mobile Payments (Finally) Arrived?
December 6, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Based on investments, prognosticators and those that fuel the hype machine, this headline could have been written (and has) years ago. But something tangible may have occurred that mobile payments are poised to take off (really).
There have been many hurdles to the mobile payment market taking off. They included:
- Handsets. Lacked the appropriate SIM or RFID technology.
- Networks. Banks and credit card companies are notoriously slow, lack innovation and are conservative.
- Security. Communicating over unsecure mobile networks is one thing, but when financial transactions are involved, security becomes paramount.
- Merchant Acceptance. Establishing a large foot print of national and independent merchants is very difficult. In technology, we call this a problem of “scale”.
- Consumer Behavior. Consumers don’t change their behavior unless there is reason for doing so. Whether it be handheld technology, convenience, savings, security or access to locations that accept mobile payments, Consumers have not embraced mobile payments in large measure.
Repeat Business . . There is No Secret
November 24, 2010 by admin · 2 Comments
Interesting post at American Express Open Forum titled “The Secret to Repeat Business: Grow Your Fanbase.” I completely buy Paul Rosenfeld, CEO of Fanminder’s, premise that small merchants are “soured by $500 rate cards and the 50 percent cut that flash sales sites take from merchants.”
He then puts forward two principal ideas that businesses who are succeeding excel at: 1) Engaging customers through fan lists that inform and provide deals; and 2) Growing their fanbase.